In the beginning was The Word:
"It's still called the theory of evolution," Tory said after touring a 100-year-old Jewish school in a Toronto suburb.
"They teach evolution in the Ontario curriculum, but they also could teach the fact to the children that there are other theories that people have out there that are part of some Christian beliefs."
And, Lo! When it became undeniably obvious that Mr. Tory was seriously proposing that creationism be presented in the public school system as a viable scientific alternative to biological evolution, the backpedaling commenced, with that same Mr. Tory dishonestly "clarifying" his remarks by revising them totally:
Sensing a growing media storm, Tory later clarified his remarks to say that he meant creationism could be taught in religion class, and that he did not mean to suggest the two theories would be given equal weight in a science lab.
And Lo! The yapping poodles picked up on the desperate clarification and revisionism until you ended up with inane interpretations such as:
Why does it matter if private religious schools keep on teaching Intelligent design?
or:
KC, John Tory did not suggest that creationism should be taught in science class.
or:
Any suggestion that John Tory "favors" or "supports the teaching of creationism" is either Liberal spin, sloppy reporting, or some combination of both.
When you finally read someone's sincere suggestion that, "Hey, all he was saying is that we should be tolerant and respect each others' religious beliefs," you'll know the spin machine has done its job.
THE DUMBASSITUDE RISES TO THE TOP: This cannot possibly require any response from me:
Christian Conservative said...
For the record, all of you have it all COMPLETELY WRONG, and so does Tory. As a former faith-based school student, I can vouch for the fact that "creationism" isn't really dealt with at all in most schools, and if it is, it's dealt with in religion classes.
As for evolution, it's simply not taught at all... in order to have a good grasp on science, you DON'T need to be taught evolution... it is also a religious dogma, but of a humanistic nature.
Bottom line is that faith-based schools, for the most part, stick to the Provincial curriculum already... they just teach it from a more balanced perspective by leaving out the overly humanistic dogmas such as evolution that AREN'T necessary.
When you're discussing the gene pool, what word comes after "shallow"?
10 comments:
When you finally read someone's sincere suggestion that, "Hey, all he was saying is that we should be tolerant and respect each others' religious beliefs," you'll know the spin machine has done its job.
John Vanasselt, with the Ontario Alliance of Christian Schools, said there is no reason why Ontario shouldn’t join other provinces that make room for religious beliefs within the public education system.
The alliance’s 78 schools already teach evolution in science class, but it is taught on par with creationism, he said.
“Our position is that the creation story is the one we believe our children ought to learn,” Vanasselt said.
“(But) we don’t believe that we’re doing them any help if we don’t teach them the other ones that are out there either . . . . We live in a free country. There needs to be freedom of thought and freedom of expression. There isn’t just one official belief.”
The Star
There's lots of hilarity in the comments over there. I liked this one:
Creationism was taught in schools for ages in the past. Remember those days, when families stuck together, crime rates were much lower, political discourse was civil, justice was meted, babies weren't murdered for the sake of selfish adults....
Ah yes, the good old days when creationism was taught in classrooms... (I sure as heck don't ever remember that.)
Yes, the good old days. When women knew their place. And blacks didn't get so uppity about, you know, civil rights and water fountains and that sort of thing.
Yeah, good times, good times.
No kidding. When did this women getting the vote thing come about, anyway?
What is the big deal with John Tory stating that publicly funded faith-based schools should be able to teach the creation stories of their respective faiths? He even explicitly clarified that he did not intend that creationism could be taught in science classes. All he is suggesting is that the 53,000 kids in non-Catholic faith-based schools be given the same opportunity to learn about their faith, along with the full Ontario curriculum, together with the 650,000 kids currently attending fully funded Catholic schools. At least Tory has the gumption to propose a solution for the discrimination. It is disturbing to hear the Liberals sweeping Ontario ’s official religious discrimination under the rug, and using Tory’s fairness initiative as a diversion to deflect attention from their own sorry record.
harold:
What part of "historical revisionism" don't you understand? John Tory clearly suggested, in his original proposal, that creationism should be presented as an alternative to biological evolution. You are conveniently ignoring that, and focusing only on his dishonest and obviously expedient "clarification."
Did you not understand, even vaguely, the point I was making in this post?
All he is suggesting is that the 53,000 kids in non-Catholic faith-based schools be given the same opportunity to learn about their faith,
...because, despite how terribly *important* it is that these people learn about their faith, NONE of them go to church, or mosque, or synagogue.
Always esteemed Scott: "NONE of the go to church, or mosque, or synagogue"
Wow, what a great idea. It is conceivable that people could go to one of those places to learn about religion. A lot of them are "pay-what-you-can", too. Everybody wins.
We have a lot of this same bullshit rhetoric down here in Jesusland.
You want to teach religion in a private school be my guest. But you do it on your own damned dime, not on mine. If you want to teach religion in public school then you need to teach ALL religions even the ones you don't like. I would have loved to have had a class back in high school to teach me the difference between genuine Christianity and Dominionists.. Or Christianity and Islam, or Buddhism or Satanists or Taoists.
You right wingers seem to forget that you live in a society and live under a government that must represent ALL people equally. In order to do that you need to leave you religious claptrap out of the classroom. Especially since if it was Muslims wanting to teach Islam in schools on your dime you'd have a massive hissy fit and you damned well know it. It is not the job of the government to teach your little crotch droppings your religion. that is YOUR job and the job of your clergy.
Religion does not belong in a public school in any democratic society. Give it up.
An even funnier spin is calling religious schoolshealthy competition.
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